


Moment of Grace

by sinnar



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Background Relationships, F/M, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Alternating, Past Relationships Not Tagged, Slow Burn, safe to assume most if not all of the characters show up at some point in here, tags will be added to/edited as the story goes along & as i get the hang of this lmao
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-06 20:05:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18858166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinnar/pseuds/sinnar
Summary: Vanya wanted to be special, and in the wake of that realized desire, she flees. Pursued not only by her own demons, but also by a shadowy organization called ‘The Commission’, Vanya struggles to control her powers and stay undiscovered - especially once she learns that The Commission has hired an outside party to track her down and bring her back: the infamous assassin, Five.Klaus just wants to be left alone, to live the rest of his (hopefully short) life wallowing in his own self-loathing and pity. Unfortunately, it seems he’s caught the attention of an annoyingly persistent ghost unhappy with the afterlife (and most definitely not looking for eternal peace). Soon Klaus finds himself in cahoots with a man hunting a pair of the most dangerous assassins in the land, and with that same annoyingly persistent ghost - all in a bid to do the impossible and bring a dead man back to life.Allison wants answers. Her sister is missing, her city is in shambles, and she’s beginning to suspect that those closest to her can’t be trusted. Luckily, she has the perfect place to start searching for said answers: Luther, a man experimented on and abandoned by The Commission, and a man who (hopefully) can lead her to her sister





	Moment of Grace

**Author's Note:**

> “I am interested in what Flannery O’Conner called a ‘moment of grace,’ ” Joyner said. “The point where people are forced to make a decision that either enables them to transcend a circumstance or succumb to it.”

It had been two days, and Vanya was still walking. She couldn’t stop - driven either by a numb terror, or a terrible mix of regret and guilt. Both, maybe. Vanya didn’t have it in herself to examine her emotions too closely - all she could do at this point was place one foot in front of the other, and keep walking. 

They would be looking for her. After the dust had settled, and they had managed to gather themselves into some semblance of order - they would come after her. Her current freedom (such as it was) was temporary. 

Vanya didn’t know what to do. After what she had done - after what they had made her do--

 _No one made you do anything_ , she reminds herself. Everything that happened - with Allison, with The Commission… 

Vanya’s hands begin to shake, so she folds her arms together, tucking her hands into her armpits and hunching forward as she walks, tired eyes trained on the ground in front of her. 

And _Harold_. 

She shouldn’t have trusted him. She was just-- she had been so _happy_. 

Vanya blinks rapidly, and swallows back her tears, curling further in on herself as she walks. Her pace gradually slows to a shuffle, her feet dragging, her boots kicking up dirt, leaving a trail of malformed footprints behind her. 

Looking back, everything seemed to happen so fast - Harold, then The Commission, _Allison_ \--

Allison had just been worried for her, had just been trying to protect her - but Vanya had been so angry, had been so _hurt_ \- and wasn’t this just what Harold had been telling her? Hadn’t he said that Allison would be threatened by Vanya realizing her true potential? Hadn’t he told her that Allison would try to stop it, if she found out? Hadn’t he _said_ that Allison wouldn’t be able to control her jealousy? That she would sabotage them? 

And all Vanya could think, when Allison had first tried talking to her, had first come to Vanya, saying she was concerned for Vanya’s well-being, that she didn’t trust Harold - all Vanya could think, was that Harold had been _right_. 

She had been such an _idiot_. 

And now Allison was-- Allison was--

A drop of water falls on her shoulder, startling Vanya out of her thoughts. Then another, in her hair - and another, sliding down her forehead. 

Vanya tilts her head up to the sky. “Ah, _shit_.” She says, low and miserable. 

And then the rain comes pouring down.

* * *

Klaus wakes with a start for three reasons: one, it’s starting to rain. Two, he’s cold. Three, there’s a strange man crouched by his semi-conscious body. 

“You look like shit,” the strange man observes. 

“Excuse you?” Klaus sits up gingerly and scoots away, tugging his coat closer around himself as he eyes the man distrustfully. 

“Aren’t there better places to sleep?”

“Not for me.” Klaus says, narrowing his eyes at the other man. “...Who’re you?”

“Ben.” Ben says. “I would shake your hand, but…” 

He reaches out and waves a hand through Klaus’ side half-heartedly, his hand flashing blue and turning translucent as he does so. Klaus startles badly, falling over with yelp and scrambling to right himself, scooting further away in the process. 

“ _What_ ,” Klaus starts. Stops. Stares a bit more. 

“I’m dead,” Ben says helpfully. He doesn’t seem to mind Klaus’ staring overmuch. “And you can see me.”

Klaus’ brain kicks into gear about three minutes too late. “You’re a _ghost_?” 

Ben’s face twists in distaste. “If that’s the word you want to use for it.”

“If that’s the-- you’re _dead_! What other word is there?”

Ben looks affronted. “I do just go by Ben,” he says pointedly. 

Klaus closes his eyes and waves a hand dismissively in Ben’s general direction, letting his head hang back until it bangs against the alley wall. “Okay,” he says. “Fine. Ben, then. I’m Klaus. Nice to meet you, yadda yadda-- what d’ya want?” he forges forward without waiting for a response, opening his eyes to squint up at the overcast, dreary sky above. “Eternal peace? You want to move on? Go into that great white light, or whatever?” Klaus’ tone turns a tad scornful. 

“Well ideally,” Ben says, still crouched in the same position he had been when Klaus first awoke. “I would like to be alive.” 

Klaus wrinkles his nose. “What? Why? Living sucks.”

“Being dead sucks more.”

Klaus eyes him. “How comforting.”

Ben shrugs, and then after a small, uncomfortable moment of silence, says, “You’re taking this rather well.”

Klaus drags a hand down his face. “I’m not entirely sure I’m not hallucinating,” he says into the palm of his hand. “Give it a couple days.”

“I’m not an hallucination.”

“Convince me,” Klaus says, staggering to his feet, one hand on the alley wall to support himself. 

Ben rises from his crouch as well - Klaus notes with some glee that he’s taller than the other man. “How can I do that?” There’s a small amused (maybe slightly incredulous) smile quirking the corners of Ben’s lips. 

“Hm,” Klaus says, dragging the sound out mock-contemplatively as he makes his wobbly way down the alley, Ben following behind. “Ah!” Klaus points a finger into the air as he absentmindedly tugs up his hood against the rain. “I know. You could leave me alone.” 

“I don’t see how that would convince you.”

“No, I just want to be left alone.” That and another bottle of liquor would be absolutely _sublime_ \- clearly he was far too sober for this. Klaus digs through his ratty coat and after a few seconds lets out a gleeful ‘aha!’ upon finding a few loose coins stuffed deep into a pocket. Liquor money obtained - now all that was left was getting this tagalong to buzz off. 

Klaus swings around, still stumbling backwards as he opens his mouth to spout some shit (anything and everything that Klaus thought had the slightest chance of making this _Ben_ stop following him, really) - before staggering to a halt, looking around the empty alley curiously. Klaus’ hands curl into fists in his pockets, and he shivers, hunching deeper into his coat. “Hello?” he calls out. “...Ben…?”

There was no reply. 

Klaus waits a moment, then shrugs to himself and turns to meander out the alley.

Whatever. Maybe he _had_ hallucinated the whole thing.

* * *

Two days. Two days since since the citadel had come crumbling down. Two days since Allison had lost her voice. 

Two days since Allison had last seen her sister. 

Everything had been thrown into chaos. They were still shifting through the rubble, still pulling out bodies - and Allison was sitting up here, injured, unable to help. 

Useless. 

“Lady Allison, your visitor has arrived.”

Allison picks up her slate and chalk and writes, _Show him in, please_. 

The Healer’s eyes flicker over the board before she smiles, nods, and ducks out the room, the door closing quietly behind her. Allison sits up straighter in bed and brushes her hair back from her face, straightening her shirt and resisting the urge to run her hands over the bandages wrapped around her throat, instead fidgeting with the blankets pooled around her waist. 

Allison hadn’t been able to help her sister, and she had failed her city - but she could still try to fix this, somehow. She could do this much, confined to her bed as she was. 

A knock at the door, and then a few silent seconds before it creaks open hesitantly. A large man wrapped in a thick cloak steps through, his shoulders dusted with rain, the hem of his cloak darkened with water and mud and muck. He shuts the door behind himself, and stands awkwardly in front of it for a moment, before stepping closer. 

“Lady Allison,” he says, sketching a quick bow. “It’s an honor to meet you.”

His voice is softer than Allison expected, more gentle than it appears a man of his size would be. Allison smiles at him, and grits her teeth against the sound of the chalk scraping against the slate. To Allison’s ears, the sound resounds uncomfortably loudly through the room. 

_You as well_ , she writes. _I’ve heard a lot about you, Luther._

A pause, as Luther reads the slate, and an uncomfortable, almost ashamed expression flickers across his face, tightening his eyes and thinning his lips. He shifts in place and makes a valiant, failed attempt at a polite smile. 

Allison winces internally, and erases her words with a cloth, writing, _Come have a seat. We have a lot to talk about._

Luther steps closer and settles himself into the chair at her bedside after a moment of hesitance. His frame barely fits into the chair, and certainly not comfortably, but Luther makes no word of complaint, his face studiously blank. 

Allison notes to ask for a larger chair to be brought in. 

“Where did you want to start?” Luther asks. 

Allison taps her chalk against the slate contemplatively, her eyes caught on the window, watching the rain patter against it, tracing the trails of water the droplets leave behind as they slide down the glass, pooling at the bottom and dripping onto the ledge. 

She taps her chalk against the slate one last time, and then tears her eyes away and writes, _Tell me about The Commission._

Outside, she can hear the rumble of thunder in the distance, rolling over in the sky. 

Luther’s lips thin, but his jaw sets determinedly, and he nods. Allison settles back, and wills her hands to stop shaking. 

She could fix this. She just needed to know exactly what she was up against, first.

**Author's Note:**

> hurrah! first fanfic!! it's also my first time writing in a really long time, tbh, so this is mostly just me trying to get back into the flow, haha. feedback is always welcome and appreciated!! 
> 
> .....operating tags was a very weird experience and my brain blanked through about 90% of it so i will be going through later to... maybe.... clean them up? add more tags? honestly any tagging advice is very welcome because i'm VERY lost 
> 
> also.... this was supposed to be a dnd au...... i thought 'wouldn't it be nice to write about a bard!vanya' and then my brain went ':-)' and spat out this mutated, bastardized, not-at-all-like-dnd au back out at me and left me to clean up the mess. and now y'all have to deal with this as well, i guess. oops?
> 
> oh my god i have to go my cousins are eating all the shrimp. here's the [tumble](https://dadgreeves.tumblr.com/), if y'all want to chat or anything! i'm friendly, i swear. thank you for reading, and i hope y'all have a lovely day!!


End file.
